Crankshaft's Sketchbook

Update on my current anatomy pose.

Updates. I think the grapes look better now. Also wip of the rendering of the mech. As for the reactor, still going big to small. And lastly, some anatomy fail.

Update on my mech.

Looking good Crank. Just watch that No. 2 on the leg closest to us, it doesn't have your usual accuracy in terms of form and perspective.

Thanks Atto! I took a quick look and you're right the perspective is off. The leg is turned away from us so it should have compressed forms which I don't have. I'll fix it soon.

Updates. Went back to my anatomy pose and attempting to finish it now that I have some experience with the shoulder muscles. Getting the structure of the torso was a nightmare and it still looks off. There's always next time



Spider mech. I love machines! Going to render it all in blue then add accents. My knowledge of color is really lacking. Noob question: are accents just the complementary of your base color? I also want to apply some of my schoolism lessons, like playing with warm and cool tones, adding sub surface scattering, specular highlights etc. Excited but nervous at the same time.



Reactor: Trying to play with warm and cool colors. Still focusing on the whole picture. More noob questions: how should I go about creating a color palette? I remember people saying to use a photo but I cant find one that matches my ideas. Or should I stop worrying and just keep practicing?



Schoolism update. Painfully re did those grapes 3 times. I guess no pain no gain. Definitely learning through the struggle. I think it looks better now but they still feel off.

Realized I made some mistakes on my pose so now I'm implementing some fixes. I'll transfer the robo bean to the pose soon.

Those grapes are really impressive. The inner glow of the light scattered through them is just right and so different from your solid metallic work. Well Done.

As to your noob questions: accents are usually small touches of colour that are repeated in different areas of the image to act as a way of linking the picture together. You can use any colour really but complementaries and warm\cool combinations work well to catch the eye and add variety and subtlety to the image.

And one other way of defining a palette or colour scheme is to use the Gamut Mask method to simplify your choices. (I think I've mentioned this before so forgive my repetition.)

Great advice Valence! Thanks a lot! Hmm the grapes are still off to me, they feel more like lumps of plaster compared to the other students. But I'm glad there's progress so thanks. Another noob question: for the reactor I already got the values down. When I choose a garmut mask can I simply paint those colors over the greyscale values? Would that still ensure harmony? Forgive my ignorance.








I couldn't understand the Fresnel effect so I did a bunch of studies. Now I get it. I'm excited to add this to upcoming work.

The gamut mask method doesn't really affect how you apply paint (whether directly or over greyscale.) It's merely a way of restricting your choices but as a result it should give more unity to an image.
The main thing it does is to force you to understand how you can also use saturation as a way of varying colour.

Nice updates by the way. That shiny reflective red object is lovely.

Thanks Val! I guess I still have much to learn. Thanks for all the help!

I got lots of work done with all my other stuff but I'll just post the stuff with the most progress to avoid boring everyone.

Wanted to understand how to make a form change using the Fresnel effect.



Finally finished this pose. Going to move to the head.



Head studies from Hampton and Loomis.